American Playwrights News

Multi-award winning Rogue Machine Theatre (BEST PRODUCTION Award winner 2013, 2011 and 2010 - Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, Ovation) will be opening their ninth season in their new home at The Met, located at 1089 N. Oxford Ave, one block east of Western Ave. on the corner of Santa Monica Blvd. and Oxford Ave.

The White Horse Theater Company is set to present the world premiere of You Are Perfect, a new play about the life of 'Manson Family Member' Susan Atkins, set in Atkins' prison cell on the eve before a key moment in the Manson murder trial. Written & directed by White Horse Theater Company's Producing Artistic Director Cyndy A. Marion, the production will run in NYC from February 5-20 at The WorkShop Theater Company-Main Stage (312 West 36th St.).

Kansas City Repertory Theatre Artistic Director Eric Rosen is pleased to announce that the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has renewed its support of KC Rep's three-year playwright residency program for Nathan Louis Jackson through the National Playwright Residency Program. The grant totals $232,000 and will enable KC Rep's Playwright in Residence Nathan Louis Jackson to continue his significant contributions to new works, a key component of KC Rep's mission.

Multi-award winning Rogue Machine Theatre (BEST PRODUCTION Award winner 2013, 2011 and 2010 - Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, Ovation) will be opening their ninth season in their new home at The Met, located at 1089 N. Oxford Ave, one block east of Western Ave. on the corner of Santa Monica Blvd. and Oxford Ave.

The artist and artistic director explains the impetus behind the FADE TO BLACK READING SERIES and shares a few secrets about the nine plays included as well as his thoughts on the current theater scene's failure to support new works by African-American playwrights.

The Amoralists proudly present the world premiere of UTILITY, written by Emily Schwend and directed by Jay Stull. UTILITY runs from January 28 - February 20, 2016 in a limited engagement at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, located at 224 Waverly Place between Perry & West 11th Streets in New York City. Previews begin January 28 for a February 1 opening.

Abrons Arts Center and New York City Players' American Playwrights Division present Really, a new play written by Jackie Sibblies Drury, directed by Richard Maxwell and designed by photographer Michael Schmelling. Performances of Really will take place March 16 - April 2 at Abrons Arts Center (466 Grand St. Manhattan). Full performance schedule, press dates and casting will be announced at a later date. For more information visit abronsartscenter.org or call 212.352.3101.

Marissa Wolf, Kansas City Repertory Theatre's Director of New Works, today announced additional programing and dates for KC Rep's new play program, Origin KC. Featuring the Monday Night Playwright Series, Playwright Slams, the Origin KC New Works Festival and the Mainstage, Origin KC offers audiences a unique experience to engage with the process of creating theater, and gives emerging and established writers the resources to develop plays for future seasons at KC Rep and beyond.

Playwrights Horizons presents the New York premiere of 2015 Pulitzer Prize finalist Marjorie Prime, a new play by Jordan Harrison (Maple and Vine, Doris to Darlene at PH; Amazons and Their Men; Kid-Simple; 'Orange is the New Black'). Commissioned by Playwrights Horizons and directed by Obie Award winner Anne Kauffman (Detroit, Maple and Vine, Your Mother's Copy of the Kama Sutra at PH; Belleville; This Wide Night; The Thugs), the play is the third production of the theater company's 2015/2016 Season. The production opens tonight, December 14, at Playwrights Horizons' Mainstage Theater (416 West 42nd Street), and will play a limited engagement through Sunday, January 3.

America's leading nurturing organization for playwrights Theater Masters & the legendary drama publisher Samuel French hosted a Book Party Launch for winning 10-minute Plays entitled “Theater Masters' Take Ten Vol.1” Book Launch Party----at Theater Masters' Artistic Director Julia Hansen's Park Avenue residence on Wednesday, December 9th. Check out photos from the event below!

The Landmarks Preservation Commission has also approved a renovation of the Helen Hayes Theater

New Artistic Director of Theatr Clywd Tamara Harvey today announces her inaugural theatre season for the company.

The 2015 Pulitzer Prize-winner Julia Wolfe's art ballad STEEL HAMMER comes to BAM in a dramatic reincarnation by director Anne Bogart, performed by six members of SITI Company, Bang on a Can All-Stars, and three vocalists- Emily Eagen, Katie Geissinger, Molly Quinn.

This December the playwright producing collective Orbiter 3 will present the world premiere of Emma Goidel's A Knee That Can Bend. Over the past two years Goidel has risen to the forefront of emerging American playwrights, working with and being recognized by organizations such as Ars Nova, the Kilroys, Labyrinth Theater Company and the Playwrights Realm. A Knee That Can Bend will mark her full-length theatre debut.

MENTOR PROJECT - the Cherry Lane Theatre's Obie-winning program for new playwrights - will mark another milestone this year when three emerging writers are mentored by three previous Mentored Playwrights from the program's early years, with fully-staged productions presented by Cherry Lane (38 Commerce St. in NYC) from February 24 to April 23, 2016 it has been announced by the theater's Producing Artistic Director, Angelina Fiordellisi.

Legendary composer Stephen Sondheim and Gloria and Emilio Estefan were among the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award recipients at the White House yesterday.

Among the 17 recipients of the 2015 Presidential Medal of Freedom are Broadway legends Stephen Sondheim and Barbra Streisand, as well as pop star and ON YOUR FEET! creator Gloria Estefan. President Barack Obama named this year's honoreees last week, and the awards will be presented at the White House today, November 24th.

In what has become an annual ritual, a total of 36 established and emerging composers, lyricists, and librettists will converge on the Goodspeed campus from mid-January through mid-February 2016 to participate in the Johnny Mercer Foundation Writers Colony at Goodspeed Musicals. The writing teams, representing 19 new musicals, will populate the campus, creating a truly exciting environment for discovery and inspiration. BroadwayWorld is excited to report that Goodspeed has announced its 2016 participants. Scroll down for details!

Playwrights Horizons presents the New York premiere of 2015 Pulitzer Prize finalist Marjorie Prime, a new play by Jordan Harrison (Maple and Vine, Doris to Darlene at PH; Amazons and Their Men; Kid-Simple; 'Orange is the New Black'). Commissioned by Playwrights Horizons and directed by Obie Award winner Anne Kauffman (Detroit, Maple and Vine, Your Mother's Copy of the Kama Sutra at PH; Belleville; This Wide Night; The Thugs), the play is the third production of the theater company's 2015/2016 Season. The first preview is tonight, November 20 at 8PM at Playwrights Horizons' Mainstage Theater (416 West 42nd Street). The production has an Opening Night set for Monday, December 14 and will play a limited engagement through Sunday, January 3.

Just last night, the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust hosted the 2015 Steinberg Playwright Awards honoring Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and Dominique Morisseau at Lincoln Center Theater's Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater (150 West 65th Street, New York, NY 10023). The event featured readings byJocelyn Bioh, Marc Damon Johnson, Jason Dirden, Austin Durant, Dominique Fishback, Lynda Gravatt, Nikiya Mathis, Chris Myers, Carra Patterson, Will Rogers, Michele Shay and Brian Tyree Henry.